jubilee pardon was granted to all offenders, a special exception was
made in the case of "Sire William de Wykeham".

[Illustration: WYKEHAM'S CHANTRY]

This was more than the heads of the Church could stand, especially as
the original charge was an unjust one; so at the ensuing meeting of
Convocation, Courtenay, then Bishop of London, declared boldly that
unless their favourite bishop was reinstated in office, no money would
be forthcoming from the clergy. In less than a month the pressing need
of funds caused the King to send a messenger to Waverley and beg Wykeham
to return to his house at Southwark. This was the first step, which,
however, did not mean an immediate return to the temporalities, as these
had been settled on the youthful heir apparent, Richard; but the people
took up Wykeham's cause, and on June 18, 1377, in the presence of the
little Richard, his uncle, and the King's council, Wykeham promised to
fit out three galleys for sea, in return for the temporalities of
Winchester. Two days later Edward III died, forsaken by his mistress,
Alice Perrers, and estranged from the one man who had served him so long
and so faithfully.

The architectural genius of Wykeham as exhibited at St. Mary's College
and the cathedral at Winchester, and at New College, Oxford, originally
founded as "St. Maries' College of Winchester at Oxenford", marks a very
decided epoch in the development of English architecture. His works, in
an architectural style found nowhere but in England, are the outcome of
a mind free from triviality, and full of common sense. His buildings are
admirably suited to their purpose, and at first sight they appear to be
so simple in design that it has been suggested that Wykeham cared more
for the constructive than the artistic side of building. It is true that